Empire Games Venues: ATHLETICS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 11

Empire Games Venues: ATHLETICS

QUEEN Elizabeth II Park which will be completed whether or not Christchurch is awarded the 1970 Commonwealth and Empire Games, will provide an athletics venue equal to any in New Zealand. Originally the New Brighton Trotting Club’s grounds, the Park was bought by the Christchurch City Council for development as a recreational ground, with particular provision for athletics. Even before the purchase was made, the Canterbury centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletics Association had set up a committee to investigate possible sites for a permanent home for the centre and the potential of the park was immediately recognized. The council was urged to lay an all-weather track and a report from the committee to the council with complete technical detail on the requirements met a ready acceptance.

The park is only five miles from Cathedral Square in an area where there is little traffic congestion. It is hoped to have a quairter-mile track with a permanent all-weather surface of the “Grasstex” type, with painted markings. It will consist of eight lanes with the straight on the stand side extended to accommodate sprint and hurdle races, fend allow for ample assembly and run-off areas for these races. Other extensions of the track will provide for the steeplechase event and there will be hard-surface approaches for the javelin, pole vault and all jumps. There will also be concrete throwing circles. The straights of the track will be 80 metres 1 (871 yards) long, which should result in a track very similar in shape to that used at the Tokyo Olympiad, a type regarded almost universally as the best. Care has been taken to nullify the result of Canterbury’s prevailing easterly and westerly winds so competitors will not be compelled to run with a head or trailing wind. The track has been given a north-south orientation and an embankment on the eastern side will provide athletes with protection from a cross-wind. Beside the main arena

This article on Queen Elizabeth II Park is the

first of a series dealing with the recommended venues contained in the Christchurch application for the 1970 Commonwealth and Empire Games.

will be a warming-up track with throwing circles and jumping pits up to the best standards. Normally this area would have had a grass surface, but for the games there will be at least two hard-surface lanes and special approaches and take-offs at the pits. There will be easy access for competitors and officials between the two grounds and in the pre-games period the warm-up ground can be used for training. Queen Elizabeth II Park will have at least 12, and probably 16, dressing rooms for male and female competitors. It is planned to site these under a new concrete grandstand which the Christchurch City Council has agreed to construct. It has been estimated that a maximum of 40.000 spectators could be accommodated at the park. There will be covered seating for 8000; temporary tiered seating would take another 10,000, while the terraced embankment could take 17,000. There would still be room to accommodate another 5000 spectators after this. The largest crowd to attend the athletics at a post--1945 Empiad is 35,496: an average attendance of 21,495, Equipment will pose no problem as all events will come under the control of the N.Z.A.A.A. Other facilities will be developed for the following 12 requirements.—-V.I.P. seating, press and radio room, administration room, television tower, medical and first aid rooms, refreshment stalls, photofinish equipment, equipment rooms, public address systems, a waterheating plant, a projection room for the re-running of video recordings, and a communication centre. Adequate water supplies for the sprinkger systems for the grassed area, for washing the track and filling the water jump, will be installed. Flood-lighting will

be necessary and it is planned to lay underground power cables for the lighting and the electric scoreboard. There will be electric connections for the starter's gun at the start-finish line, at the 220 start, and also for the photo-finish equipment. An underground radio cable with suitable connexions for the public address system from the field events will also be installed. Existing parking facilities, used by the Trotting Club, can contain 1100 cars but the additional parking space planned and the sides of ad-

jacent roads could contain another 5000 cars. Whether or not the games come to Christchurch, the development of Queen Elizabeth Il Park will go ahead. But the incentive provided by the games should create one of the best stadiums in the British Commonwealth and, in the planning, no effort has been spared to ensure the ultimate in both competitor and spectator facilities. The stadium will not merely be an athletics venue; it will be a civic amenity of the highest order.